Industrial IoT: now you know what this second “I” stands for

For a long time, consumer focus was dominating the IoT sphere, major players of the fields are steadily bringing IoT technologies on the industrial scopes (IIoT). Potential cost saving and an increase of competitiveness are a great boost for the process.

The IIoT tendencies are increasing from day to day. It covers industries that constitute 60 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) among G20 nations. It is expected that spending on IIoT Projects will increase to $20 billion worldwide by 2020. More optimistic estimates range around $15 trillionof global GDP by 2030. Automation and flexibility provided by IIoT to the production can boost efficiency by nearly 30 percent. Predictive maintenance can save up to 12 percent, compared to scheduled repair, cutting maintenance costs to 30 percent and minimizing breakdowns to 70 percent.

Gartner predicted that smart dust is getting a new tendency of the upcoming years. Smart dust covers extremely little sensors the size of sand grain that can identify either chemicals or vibrations. The ways smart dust can be applied are endless. For instance, oil companies could check rock movements and factories could exploit small sensors all over their equipment to control changes and problems.

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, could become an important part of IIoT serving as a sensor or a connection provider between sensors and data collection points. Drones may not be considered as complete IIoT devices, but they can carry the sensors and act as autonomous machines gathering valuable data. However, quickly acting on the data they get and communicating with other drones, they are still not mere collectors. The IIoT sphere can benefit from such features.

IIoT projects can substantially improve the agriculture industry, as well. They can help farmers improve the ways they utilize the huge amounts of data their farms generate. For example, Ward Aquafarms, an oyster farm, deployed IIoT projects to increase productivity by using satellite imaging and IIoT to monitor harvest-to-delivery operating processes.

Aerospace is another industry to benefit from IIoT devices. IIoT solutions installed can predict maintenance troubles before they actually happen saving time and money. Moreover, they can cut flight delays using data from the airplanes sensors.

To sum up, operational efficiency and cost savings are only a few improvements that IIoT brings to the worldwide economics. Such a ground is a legitimate condition for its further sustainable growth. The effective way for a business to implement IIoT, according to Accenture, is to boost revenues with production increased, invest in innovative technologies, and transform the workplace for the IIoT devices.